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[deleted] wrote (edited )

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EdgyIndividualistBuffoon OP wrote

Hate to break it to you but a few tens of thousands of propaganda dollars on Facebook ads and Twitter bots are not going to have a significant effect on the cultural malestrom we inhabit consisting of home-grown racists, conspiracy theorists, 4chan trolls, Klan spammers, angry preteens, aggrieved nationalists, and yes long-standing separatists in various regions.

All this "Putin is masterminding all political chaos" bullshit is just an attempt to excuse the huge amount of terrible people that live in our society ("Putin is behind the rise of American neo-Nazis!") or the real reasons for anger that are driving some movements ("Catalonia would never want to separate if it wasn't for Putin!").

Look upon our culture, ye credulous, and despair. It isn't fucking Putin or Russia's doing that we're in this mess.

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autonomous_hippopotamus wrote

Agree and disagree,

While yes, Neo-Nazis, racism etc. have grown out of the social conditions of the u.s. and can't be blamed on Russia, they do see fellow travelors in Putin and Assad, for example, and Putin has had links to Neo-Nazi groups throughout europe, particularly golden dawn, tho yes you are correct that we shouldn't exagerate this influence.

Propaganda works, RT, Global Research and other websites that parrot their lines parrot their talking points have had a significant influence on the left in general: for example, when it comes to Ukraine or Syria, most leftists will repeat some form of the Narrative put out by Russia. Saying that full time propaganda networks have no significant influence on public discourse is pretty absurd. Like no one would deny fox news has been very instrumental in drumming up anti-immigrant sentiment for example, tho yes, it would be dishonest to say they ar the only ones responsible.

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